Third Chance
by 7E5T3R
Summary: Katara is a nice person, she always believed that. People would agree, except when it came to Zuko. Slow paced Zutara but eventually major.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, The Last Airbender

Zuko was pretty tired of the waterbender complaining, constantly, night and day.

_I hate him. _

_Why Zuko!?_

_How about we leave him in a ditch somewhere?_

_I hate him._

_Let's get rid of him._

_No one will miss that scum._

_I hate him._

Now, he had to hold himself back from sending a trail of flames at her as she questioned Aang, yet again, as to why they really needed Zuko with them. He was about to stand up in a burst of flames, he was about to send a glare that could drop a child, and he was about to tell her to shut up and deal with it. Yet he knew that if he did, he would never gain their trust.

Aang was passive with the decision to let him join, obviously putting his need to learn firebending ahead of his feelings. Toph didn't care at all, and only insisted that as long as the firebender leave her alone she was fine. Sokka and Katara both played pranks on him and insulted him constantly.

He learned to ignore it and deal with it, just leaving them to their peace during dinner and training, going off in his own little world. Like every night, he scooped his soup that Katara had prepared for them and walked away, entering a nearby clearing where he would eat alone like always.

Zuko didn't mind, because he had gotten used to loneliness after he lost his mother. It was something that grew on him, and he never really cared. He sat on a rock with a sigh and observed his soup carefully. He let the liquid drip from the spoon, studying it. After a moment he dumped it out onto the ground, confident that the waterbender had poisoned it again.

His stomach was still a little shaky from the last time she successfully slipped an unknown leaf into his breakfast. Standing he walked back into the clearing, drawing stares from his teammates as they had yet to even start their dinner. Zuko placed his bowl by the rest of the dishes and picked up his swords, silently leaving as soon as he came.

Katara cursed her luck, knowing well that he had figured out her trick. Aang sent her a glare when Zuko was gone. "Katara, Zuko hasn't eaten in days, can't you give him some good food for once?"

"He's eaten, why do you think he gets his swords? He goes and gets a pig or something every night." Toph took another bite of her food.

"He's hunting?" asked Sokka. "Maybe I should go with him, give him some pointers."

"Anyway..." Aang interrupted, clearly annoyed that they had done the same to him. "Can't you be nicer to him?"

"Why should I?" asked Katara. "He's nothing but Fire Nation scum."

"He's right, Scarface has gone through a lot Sweetness, lighten up."

"I'm never going to like, trust, or treat that slime as a person." Katara crossed her arms and looked away.

Aang sighed and looked out after his firebending teacher.

A few hours later Zuko pulled the Avatar away from the group, somewhat reluctantly to start training again. Katara eyed them suspiciously while they walked away. When the two had left the waterbender pulled a rather large cup of dead bugs, and proceeded to pouring them down Zuko's sleeping bag.

Sokka watched with a snicker and Toph watched with a shake of her head.

When the two came back from the training session it was obvious they were tired. Aang gave a wave to his friends before hopping in his sleeping bag and drifting to sleep. Zuko decided to do the same, stretching his aching muscles and slipping out of his shirt.

Katara watched with an evil grin as the Fire Nation Prince slipped into his sleeping bag.

Zuko knew something was wrong before he even closed his eyes, feeling the slimy, hairy bodies and wings of dead flies. With a yelp he jumped up and hopped around hopelessly, trying to untangle himself from the animal hide that served as his sleeping bag. He stumbled back and crashed into Appa, angering the mighty animal.

With a grunt the bison pushed Zuko back forward with his tail, sending the pour firebender into the still dirty dishes. Katara and Sokka burst out laughing as Zuko struggled to still stand up. Toph managed a snicker but that was about it. Aang looked up at his teacher from his position on the ground with a frown.

Zuko mumbled and growled silently under his breathe as he stormed away from the camp.

It wasn't fair, just like everything in his life. Walking alongside the nearby stream he had to convince himself countless times that was what formed his character and maybe it was a good thing.

He stopped with a sigh and sat down next to the stream. It wasn't the constant insults and pranks that they played on him, but the fact that they would never accept him, and that always made him feel like a monster. A snap startled him and he turned behind him to the bushes that shook.

Two large ears sprouted from the leaves and Momo emerged from the foliage. The lemur seemed to look around for a moment cautiously while Zuko watched him. After seeming to approve of the area he ran back into the bushes and then came back, carrying a small pillow and blanket.

Zuko managed a chuckle as the lemur pushed the two things towards the firebender. Zuko accepted the items and scratched the lemur's ears in thanks.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, The Last Airbender

Katara was surprised when she came across a sleeping Zuko along the side of the river, Momo curled up in a ball over his face. She smirked as she pulled the lemur from the firebender's face and shooed him back to camp. Silently she lifted a long floating rivulet of water and guided it over his head.

Zuko awoke in a coughing fit, rubbing his tired eyes while trying to get the water out of his mouth. He looked up to see Katara looking satisfied with her work. He stood slowly and awkwardly, obviously sleep deprived. Katara didn't give him a chance to fully recover before she talked, "Breakfast is ready."

With that she turned around and began to walk away when she felt a rough hand angrily but gently grab her wrist. In a quick movement the Fire Prince spun her around to face him.

"Look," growled Zuko. "I don't care that you don't like me, really I don't. I'm not asking you to like me either, but just leave me alone, please."

She pulled her wrist from his grasp and crossed her arms. "I could have asked you the same thing a month ago."

His eyes narrowed. "If you _really _want to annoy me then trust me, leaving me alone would be far worse than anything you do to me."

"I have trouble trusting anything _you _say."

He turned to the ground ashamed. "As much as I want to eat whatever you put in my food today I'll pass," Zuko retrieved his sleeping things, and then moved to leave. "Tell the Avatar I'll be waiting for him in the normal spot for training." The sounds of the slow moving river and Katara's scowl was all that accompanied him as he left.

The peace that surrounded Zuko was overwhelming. Although lonely he was still able to soak in the quiet, until Aang fell through the bushes. "Hey Zuko, sorry I'm late."

"Sit down," said Zuko, doing so himself. "Today we meditate."

The young Avatar nodded and sat down in front of his teacher. Zuko began sitting quietly, closing his eyes and taking in a calming breathe. One of Aang's eyes opened, observing the other bender carefully. "Zuko?"

"What?"

"I was wondering how you felt about fighting your father, I mean, if I had to fight Gyatso then I would be pretty upset."

"Tell me," interrupted Zuko. "Did this Gyatso person humiliate you in front of your country, burn you, turn you into a monster, and disown you?"

"Well...no."

"Then there is your answer, now be quiet."

The two sat in silence again for a short while until Aang sighed loudly, obviously bored. "For what it's worth, I don't think you're a monster."

"Please..." Zuko opened his eyes now, anger and maybe something else growing behind his golden orbs.

"Right, sorry."

Again they sat quietly, until Sokka interrupted. "Hey guys, I was wondering if you've seen my boomerang."

"No Sokka, I haven't seen your boomerang, how about you Zuko?"

Aang quickly regretted asking when he saw the death glare Zuko gave both of them. "No," he said between clenched teeth. "I haven't, now please let us meditate."

Sokka quickly complied, running off back to camp. Aang sighed again amidst the quiet. Then Katara broke through the bushes. "Hey Aang, you want to go waterbending?"

"Ah yeah," He moved to stand up, but was stopped by a trail of flames souring over his bald head.

"Hey!" yelled Katara.

"What do you not understand about meditating!?" Zuko was obviously extremely angry. "We have less than a month until we attack the Fire Nation and you have barely started the basics. I am trying to help by teaching you firebending, but if you won't learn then the only reason I am here is to have you," he pointed an accusing finger at Katara. "insult and ridicule me. Believe it or not, I have better things to do, so either he stays here and meditates with me or goes with you and I leave."

The two stood silently, Aang seeming surprised yet understanding of Zuko's outburst slowly sat back down. Katara looked angry, but let it go as she turned to walk away.

Zuko sat back down and again began meditating. Aang opened his eyes again. "Zuko, just wondering, what would you do if you left the group?"

* * *

When the two arrived back at camp lunch was ready for them. Zuko observed his food, some chunks of chicken standing up and walking away. With a gag he turned down the food and left with his sowrds. 

"Katara!"

"What, he deserved it," she said passively while eating her food. "Who does he think he is? He can't just turn down teaching you just because we want to waterbend, and besides, you won't even need firebending because of the eclipse."

"Zuko said it's important to understand all of the other elements before fighting," Aang said between mouth full's of food. "Not only have I almost mastered waterbending, but I need to learn it eventually anyway."

"Well, maybe but, what would he do if he left the group?"

Aang stopped eating and wiped his mouth. "He said he would go looking for his mother."

Everyone stopped eating. "His mom?" asked Toph. "I didn't think Scarface even had a mom."

"Everyone has a mom Toph," said Katara. "Even Fire Nation murderers."

"Well his mom disappeared after his father took the throne," explained the Avatar. "He hopes she is still alive and wants to find her."

"How come he told you all this stuff Aang?" asked Sokka.

Aang just shrugged and continued to eat. "Well I for one hope he doesn't find her, because he deserves it."

Sokka choked on his food. "I can't believe you of all people would say that Katara. If you thought mom was still alive wouldn't you want to find her?"

"Yes, because mom was killed by the Fire Nation, but his mom was probably as evil and mistrustful as her son."

The other three memebers of the group looked at one another. Obvious tension hang in the air with Katara's unexpected display of obvious hate towards the firebender. Katara for one just sat defiantly with her arms crossed.

"I'm going to wash Appa," said Aang, stepping up from the table.

"Yeah, I'm gonna hit the sack a little early." Toph also stood to leave.

"I'll...go hunting." Sokka ran off into the forest, ultimatly leaving Katara alone. She stood angrily and stormed off as well, mumbling things under her breathe. Only a few paces from camp she crashed into a strong figure, oblivious to the person with her moment of anger towards her teammates.

She looked up to see Zuko, hate and pain boiling around him. How long had he been standing that close to camp? The answer was obviosu when he roughly grabbed her shoulders and pushed her up against a nearby tree.

"Listen here you stupid peasant," sneered the prince. "I can deal with your insults, I can tolerate your pranks, I can ignore your hate for me and excuse the constant suggestions of ways to kill me."

Katara was about to speak but he stopped her.

"I'm not finished," He placed a hand to her mouth gently. "But when you interfere with my training of the Avatar for selfish reasons and insult my mother, I can't take it anymore. I will have you know that my mother was a far better person than you will ever be, and maybe the most sane in the entire royal family. If it wasn't for her I would be no better than my father or sister. I know the Fire Nation killed your mother, and I don't like you but I can respect the fact that you care about her and you miss her. All I ask is you do the same for me."

The waterbender was silent, looking away like a small child angry at her parents. Zuko turned away, but not fast enough to avoid her seeing a tear slip from his good eye. She didn't think Zuko could ever actually cry, but she had just seen him, and now she saw his back as he walked away.

Katara walked back to camp to prepare for dinner.

(A/N) I did not know there was another story with the same title, so I will be changing this one to 'Third Chance' with the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, The Last Airbender

The silence lingering in the air with the group while they ate was unbearable, considering it was the first time Zuko had eaten with the gang. He watched his 'noodles' wiggled around in the bowl, searching for an escape and put it down on the ground for Momo to eat, who gladly accepted. Aang watched his teacher sit quietly, every breathe he drew causing the fire to rise slightly.

"So...Zuko...what are we going to do today?" asked Aang.

The prince looked up from the fire to his pupil for a moment, then turned to Katara who looked away, avoiding his glare. "I was thinking you could take a break today, maybe work on some earthbending to balance it out."

"I won't disagree with that Scarface," said Toph.

He ignored her and turned back to the fire. Sokka finished eating before anyone barely got half way through and stood to stretch. "Well, if you all want to bend then I'm going to take a rinse in the river."

"You need it," mumbled Katara, picking up his bowl. The warrior left hastily, obviously glad to excape the uncomfortable atmosphere around the camp fire.

"Well Toes, I guess we should go earthbend." Toph stood but Aang hesitated, looking between his firebending and waterbending teacher, both averting gazes. He turned to Toph.

"Maybe we should wait a while."

"Whatever Sugar Queen's problem is she'll get over it, meanwhile let's go." Katara mumbled something about her teammate before they left.

Zuko continued to play with the fire while Katara watched her food, actual noodles. She looked up to the prince who rested his chin on his hand. "You want the rest?"

He looked up to the waterbender who offered her food to him. He studied it almost as if it was a bomb ready to go off. With hesitation he reached for it and grabbed the half eaten food. "Thanks."

She nodded and looked to the fire like he had before. Zuko started eating, only to have his eyes go wide when he realized what she had done. In his mouth a needle stood from his tongue. He pulled it out painfully and threw the plate to the fire.

Katara sent him a frown. Again she felt he deserved it. First Momo and then Aang? Slowly he was managing to move everybody to his side. The Avatar never confronted Katara about her problems with the prince, although she could tell he wanted to. She did notice however that he sided with him more often, and that made her mad.

She saw Momo sitting comfortably in the Fire Prince's lap, purring softly while he stroked it's ear. She felt jealous and angry just seeing a lemur like him? What was their problem? He had _chased _them, _lied _to them, and then _betrayed _them. That was not easily forgotten or forgiven in her book.

She did however feel bad for what she had said about his mother, and felt that she should do something to make it up, even if it was a simple apology. She even had to admit she crossed the line with that, but still felt that he was the scum of the earth.

"Momo, come here," she said, picking up a small piece of meat and waving it. The lemur looked up curious, watching her wave the food around. His ears perked and he stood for a moment. Katara sent Zuko a smirk until the lemur just stretched and rested again on Zuko's lap.

Now Zuko smirked, "Sorry he _rejected _you, and that's to bad because I was planning on kidnapping your lemur." His voice was soaking wet with sarcasm.

Katara frowned and crossed her arms. "Your probably were."

Not only did she hate him, but Zuko loathed her. She could never put things behind her, and he understood what he did was bad, but he had made up for it and if she couldn't even ignore him for everyone's sake than she was no better than a child. The constant pranks didn't help either, especially when it came to his food.

Again they sat in silence, until Zuko let out a long breathe. He looked up to her, seeing that she had began drifting off. "Tired?"

"No," she said, sitting back up. "Just-you know-"

"It must be hard having a warm sleeping bag," he interrupted, leaning back on his hands. "Good thing you don't have to sleep on the wet ground with only a blanket."

"Yeah well only _good _people deserve sleeping bags."

"Then you shouldn't get one."

"You think I'm a bad person?"

"I think you're a horrible, childish, immature person."

"You're one to talk!"

His eyes narrowed and he picked Momo up, setting him gently on the ground. Standing the flames grew a little larger. "I admit that I am a bad person, and I have made mistakes, bad ones.," He turned around. "I don't know why I was even accepted into your group, because I don't deserve it. But at least I can admit that, and at least I am considerate of other peoples feelings. Even monsters have feelings waterbender."

Katara crossed her arms as he began to walk away. _Fine, then I'll make sure whatever feelings still exist in that pile of ash you call a heart I will crush them, because you did the same to me._

Zuko walked away from the camp, Momo jumping after him.

Katara pondered what she could do to the Prince, establishing that simple pranks were not enough. Like he said, leaving him alone would be worse, although she didn't believe that for a second. Probably just his way of reverse phsycology. How could she do to Zuko exactly what he did to her?

How could she build up his hopes and trust of something and then smother it to the ground, then come back and ask for forgivness?

Katara suddenly smirked as she got an idea. It was a pretty bad idea, but it would have the same effect on Zuko as his betrayal had on her. She was going to ask Sokka what he thought about the idea, knowing that although he could forgive the Prince the warrior would always hate him and never reveal her secret.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

* * *

Sokka watched as Toph easily shattered Aang's wall of stone. "Do it again, but better!"

"Are you sure it was a good idea to leave those two alone Toph?" asked Sokka. "I mean I don't like Zuko, but he's not a bad guy anymore, and Katara could kill him."

"Sweetness will just have to get over it," said the earthbender.

"It's not that easy for Katara to forget things like that," explained Sokka. "She gets overboard with things like that, and doesn't believe in third chances."

"Then we'll have to just inch her in that direction, even if we have to shove a few times."

"I like Zuko!" said Aang who was on the ground. "He has done some bad stuff but that's only because he was influenced by bad people."

"Yeah, he's not...horrible," agreed Sokka. "It's nice to have another guy in the group."

Aang turned to his friend angrily.

"You know Aang, meat eater, hunter, fighter."

Aang just shook his head and looked back to Toph. "But do you really think forcing the two to spend time together will help?"

"Obviously not," said Toph, turning her blind eyes behind her. "Cuz' Sweetness is walking this way."

"I really hate it when you call me that Toph, could you give it a rest?" asked Katara as she stepped out of the bushes.

"I'm sure Scarface hates it when you give him worms for food, could you give that a rest?" countered Toph, crossing her arms.

Katara sighed and then turned to her brother. "Sokka, can I talk to you?"

Sokka dismissivly nodded and with a snort followed his baby sister away from Toph and Aang, who watched them go quietly. When Katara felt she pulled her brother far enough she stopped and turned to him.

"I have a good idea for a prank on Zuko," she whispered.

Sokka smirked. "Lay it on me."

"I was thinking of how I could show him how much what he did to me...I mean us hurt by doing something similar to him."

"So what did you have in mind?" asked Sokka.

"I was thinking that maybe I could _pretend _to like him and forgive him. Then when he likes me enough I'll turn him down and crush his feelings, and see how he likes it."

Sokka was pretty shocked, only watching his babay sister as she seemed utterly satisfied with her idea. "Are you kidding me?"

"Of course not, so I might need your help with a few things, and be sure not to tell anyo-"

"I'm not helping," interupted Sokka. He crossed his arms defiantly and looked to the sky.

"What? Why?"

"Because that's crossing a line Katara, I could understand the occasional tainted food or infected sleeping bag or stolen swords but to crush a guy like that is just wrong. Even if it is Zuko I don't think he deserves something like that."

"But he did that same to us!" screamed Katara, waving her hands in the air.

Sokka sighed and rubbed his head. "Look, I may not be friends with Zuko but anyone could see that he fights with himself over everything he does. One side always needs to be Fire Nation and have his father love him, but that small side wants to be good. Maybe he did go to the wrong side in those caves but he is slowly building that small side up, and he needs us to help him with it. Doing this out of revenge is stupid and will smother all that he's worked for."

Katara growled and turned around. "I thought of all people _you _would understand Sokka. The Fire Nation took our mother away!"

"That's not Zuko's fault Katara, but you're convincing him it is and he is doing everything he can to make it up and try to be seen as an equal to us."

"Just forget it Sokka, I'm doing it anyway."

Sokka sighed and watched the ground. "I won't tell him anything because I hope you will realize it's the wrong thing to do."

The warrior turned away and walked back towards the other benders of the group, leaving Katara alone in the woods. With another menacing growl she walked away. She didn't care what he thought, she was going to do it anyway.


End file.
